Dead Island 2 Steam Deck performance report: a mostly sunny outlook

I’m too prejudiced against first-person melee games to enjoy Dead Island 2 as much our reviewer Rick Lane did, but even a mind as narrowed as mine can appreciate its slick performance on PC. I wanted to see how well that smoothness and stability would carry over to the Steam Deck, and although the long-delayed zombie mulcher needs some cuts to quality settings, finding the right balance will have Dead Island 2 running almost as comfortably as the very best Steam Deck games.

Alas, it’s still not the ideal handheld game, thanks both to the odd crash (lowering settings helps with this) and the fact that it needs some tinkering with the Epic Games Launcher to get it playable in the first place. Still, playable it very much is.

Let’s start by addressing Dead Island 2’s lack of a Steam version; it launches on February 21st as an Epic Games exclusive, and since DI2 isn’t even listed on Steam right now, that’s unlikely to change any time soon. Luckily, there are workarounds: you can either install the Heroic Launcher, or follow our handy guide on how to install the Epic Games Launcher on the Steam Deck. Both of these should allow you to get Dead Island 2 downloaded onto the handheld, still using your regular Epic account.

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